nd birth. For such people there is no greater torture than being
veiled from God, and no more severe punishment than sensual vices, dark
qualities, lowness of nature, engrossment in carnal desires. When they are
delivered through the light of faith from the darkness of these vices, and
become illuminated with the radiance of the Sun of Reality, and ennobled
with all the virtues, they esteem this the greatest reward, and they know
it to be the true paradise. In the same way they consider that the
spiritual punishment, that is to say the torture and punishment of
existence, is to be subjected to the world of nature, to be veiled from
God, to be brutal and ignorant, to fall into carnal lusts, to be absorbed
in animal frailties; to be characterized with dark qualities, such as
falsehood, tyranny, cruelty, attachment to the affairs of the world, and
being immersed in satanic ideas; for them, these are the greatest
punishments and tortures.

Likewise the rewards of the other world are the eternal life which is
clearly mentioned in all the Holy Books, the divine perfections, the
eternal bounties, and everlasting felicity. The rewards of the other world
are the perfections and the peace obtained in the spiritual worlds after
leaving this world; whilst the rewards of this life are the real luminous
perfections which are realized in this world, and which are the cause of
eternal life, for they are the very progress of existence. It is like the
man who passes from the embryonic world to the state of maturity, and
becomes the manifestation of these words: "Blessed be God, the best of
creators." The rewards of the other world are peace, the spiritual graces,
the various spiritual gifts in the Kingdom of God, the gaining of the
desires of the heart and the soul, and the meeting of God in the world of
eternity. In the same way the punishments of the other world, that is to
say, the torments of the other world, consist in being deprived of the
special divine blessings and the absolute bounties, and falling into the
lowest degrees of existence. He who is deprived of these divine favors,
although he continues after death, is considered as dead by the people of
truth.

The logical proof of the immortality of the spirit is this, that no sign
can come from a non-existing thing; that is to say, it is impossible that
from absolute non-existence signs should appear, for the signs are the
consequence of an existence, and the consequence depends